


Into the Looking Glass

by angelboygabriel



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, Heavy Angst, Infinity War spoilers & alternate endings, M/M, Multiple Storylines, one massive fucking fix-it fic, slow burn IronStrange, tags to update as I go, the Soul Realm
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-14
Updated: 2018-06-13
Packaged: 2019-05-23 03:48:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14926559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelboygabriel/pseuds/angelboygabriel
Summary: After Thanos has won,after all seems lost,the fallen heroes gather their shields and stand up.In the Soul world, Stephen and Peter work to reverse the Snap and save trillions. On Earth- Tony, Scott, Carol, and the rest of the living fight to get the dead back.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve been kicking this idea around for months so we’ll see if I fully commit. It’s a literal struggle to juggle so many characters, but I’ll try my best! Hope you enjoy the ride.

 

“Peter, wake up.”

A soft hand ran through his hair and tapped his chin. “C’mon, my little hero. Up and at ‘em.”

Peter groaned and opened his eyes. May was watching him with a fond smile, and he shot up as he fully woke.

“Wait, where am I? What just happened?” he demanded, and then quickly patted himself down in horror.

 _Solid_.

May quickly wrapped her arms around him. “Sweetie, it’s okay, you’re awake now.” she said and Peter tried to calm his panicked breathing as he took in his bedroom and let his aunt hug him.

“I had... I had this really awful dream.” Peter stammered and grabbed her hand. “It was so real- and I- I died in it-“ he said, starting to choke up as it came rushing back to him. Jumping out the bus window, the freaky Squidward-looking alien, Mr. Stark and a wizard, the space ship, an alien planet, that scary purple guy, dust.

May grabbed his face in his hands. “Peter, honey, calm down. I wanted to wake you up because Tony Stark and one of his friends are here. He said he needed to see you?” She told him gently, and Peter nodded his head blearily.

“Yeah. Yeah, of course, May. Let me get dressed.” he said and she nodded.

“There’s pancakes and bacon if you’re fast.” she prompted him, and Peter finally smiled as she shut the door and he looked around on the floor for some clean jeans and a tee. He tossed it on and walked out into the living room, where Mr. Stark turned over the back of the couch to wave. Some kinda severe looking guy was next to him in a silky navy suit.

“Hey Pete. It’s good to see you. Your Aunt made some breakfast.” Mr. Stark said, thumb jerking towards the kitchen. Peter nodded and squinted at the other guy.

“Do I know you?” he asked, and a smirk pulled at the guy’s face.

Tony looked between them.

“Have you... met Stephen before?” he questioned, and Peter frowned.

“I don’t... think so?” he said, statement piquing into a question at the end.

“Probably not.” the guy, _Stephen_ , commented, and he extended a hand to Peter. “Stephen Strange. It’s great to meet you, Peter. Tony loves to brag about you.” he says, shaking hands. Tony grinned, not noticing as Peter froze up. He recognized Stephen as the wizard guy from his dream, and Stephen’s expression remained cool even as Peter felt like his soul was being examined.

 _We have much to discuss_. a voice echoed in his head, and Peter dropped Stephen’s hand, spooked.

Wanting to get away for a moment, Peter poked his head into the kitchen to grab his plate of breakfast from May, who was texting on her phone, before going to sit down across from Mr. Stark and Mr. Strange. He took a bite of bacon before addressing the men again.

“So... what’s up?” he asked with an uneasy glance to Mr. Strange, and Tony sighed, sinking back into the couch.

“We’re gonna need you at the facilities to help with some... stuff.” he said vaguely and Peter’s brow furrowed. Mr. Stark gave him a meaningful look, but the expression didn’t waver and he rolled his eyes. “Like, the internship stuff.” he elaborated, and Peter’s mouth fell into an “oh” before he took a bite of pancake.

“Uh, okay. You remember Aunt May knows about Spider-Man, right? You don’t have to be cryptic.” he said, and Tony looked kinda funny for a second before he lightened.

“Of course. How could I forget? That was a scolding not even my mom could match.” he laughed. Mr. Strange smiled fondly at him.

“So, are we going today?” Peter asked, and Tony nodded.

“I spoke to your aunt. We’re all cleared when you are.” he replied, and Peter shrugged as he finished the rest of his breakfast and checked his pocket for his phone. Mr. Stark stood up. “Alright, May, we’re headed off.” Tony yelled into the kitchen and May waved with a smile.

“Bye May! I’ll be back!” Peter said cheerfully as they walked out the door, but Mr. Strange grabbed his wrist as the door shut behind him.

“Tony, go on. I need to speak to Peter.” he requested, and Tony tipped his head as he got in an elevator.

“Um, yeah?” Peter asked, and Strange moved his hand to his shoulder.

“I don’t have much time to explain this. We have to keep up images. But I need you to listen to me.” he said, and Peter started to feel even more nervous around him. Something wasn’t right.

“I won’t mince it: this isn’t real, Peter. You’re dead.” Mr. Strange commented flatly and Peter scoffed.

“What? What are you talking about?” Peter demanded and Stephen cast a glance at the elevator.

“I know you’re not naïve, Peter. You can sense it. Your dream was _real_. Thanos, the gauntlet, all of it. We’re in the Soul Stone.” he explained, and Peter gave him a horrified look.

“No.” he whispered, knees giving out as he realized Strange was telling the truth.

“No, no, no.” he said louder, and grabbed the lapels of Stephen’s suit jacket as he sank down, Stephen gripped his arms.

“Oh my God.” he gasped as he looked into Mr. Strange’s eyes with terror. “Does this- does this mean- Is May- Is Tony-“

“They’re not dead, Peter. This whole world is a simulation. The half of the universe that died doesn’t... know they are dead. The Soul world is a warped version of the living one, and it is _very_ fragile.”

“Does that mean everyone is fake?” he asked, and Stephen sighed as he helped Peter back to his feet, not letting go of the teen yet.

“No, like I said, this plane is half real souls, half projections. I’m real. You’re real. This Tony and May are not. We need to find the others so we can figure out if we can somehow reverse the snap from inside this universe. I believe we could shatter it and put everything back in its place if we tried hard enough. The Soul Stone was in such close proximity to the Reality Stone that it’s breaking down the foundations of this world for us already.” Stephen elaborated and started to lead them to the elevator as Peter took all the information in.

“Well, gee. Time to break the universe again, I guess.” Peter said.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Establishing the Earth storylines before I can really get into the action.

 

Tony was alone.

The phantom feeling of Peter’s arms wrapped around him wouldn’t leave his mind and he stared blankly at all the dust in the wind. They had _lost_. Fuck Stephen Strange and his talk of endgame, this was defeat in its most raw form.

Tony looked at his hands. He didn’t deserve to be saved. He didn’t deserve to have the universe traded for his life.

He stood up and looked at this dead, dead planet and made a planet to himself that no matter what, he would fix this. Laws of time and space be damned, Tony Stark would fix this. _It’s what he does._

 

* * *

 

Scott hummed to himself as he unlocked the door to his house. Things had been going so good lately- he and Hope had worked things out and moved in together, he finished parole, and he’d gotten more custody of Cassie. On top of that, work at Pym Tech was great. After they secured Ghost’s technology back, things had settled down, and were, dare Scott say it, normal.

“Cassie! Hope! I’m home!” he yelled as he shut the door behind him and dropped his keys in the little dish Hope kept by the door. He kicked Cassie’s skates out of the way as he strode into the living room and stopped dead.

Something was _very_ wrong.

Cassie was crying and Hope had her head pressed against her chest while their legs... their legs looked like they were disintegrating. Scott felt a sick feeling build up in his stomach as Hope turned a tear streaked face to him.

“Cassie, look, Daddy’s here to save us.” she choked out, and Scott couldn’t move as his daughter looked at him, dust going up to their waists.

“Daddy, make it stop, I’m scared!” She sobbed, and Hope ran a hand through her hair.

“It’s okay, sweetie, he’s gonna make it all better.” Hope said, tears falling down her face, the most open look of horror and shock Scott had ever seen crossing her face as there was suddenly nothing left for her to hold. He felt that same look cross his own face.

“Oh my god.” he breathed, and Hope smiled through her crying.

“I love you.” she said.

And then she was gone too.

Scott fell to the ground and threw up until all he could do was dry heave. He crawled over to where dust now colored their couch and carpet, and touched it with shaky fingers.

He lost track of the time he sat there in shock, the day growing dark as he finally got out his phone, calling contact after contact. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Panic started to really set in as he opened up his priority contacts, finally locating the emergency contact he had been given for Sam Wilson.

“Fuck!” he screamed when that too, went to voicemail. He threw his phone against the wall and set his head in his hands, letting himself cry for a few minutes, his whole body shaking before he steeled himself.

Cassie needed him. Hope needed him. They needed a hero.

He stood up with newfound resolve and stormed upstairs to get his suit, hastily putting it on as he ran out the door. He had an Uber to Stark Tower to catch.

 

* * *

 

Somehow, Carol had found herself on Sakaar in the company of one Valkyrie, displaced from a planet of refugees she had sworn to protect them taken from.

They had become friends and grown... _close_ in their time of regrouping.

Carol watched her as she moved around their room, sliding her breastplate and leg armor over the thin layers she already had on. She picked up her hand guards and electronics and made to go out the door before Carol stopped her.

“Where are you going?” she asked, and Valkyrie turned with an exasperated smile.

“Well, if we ever want to be able to leave this realm, I need to find the parts to fix your ship’s trans-universal engine.” she said and Carol nodded demurely, stretching against the blankets and pillows covering the bed of the apartment Valkyrie had reclaimed upon her return.

“Do you need any help?” She asked, and Valkyrie shook her head.

“No, not right n-“

They both stopped and turned to look at the pile of Carol’s uniform. _Something_ was beeping angrily all of the sudden.

“What is that?” Valkyrie asked, and Carol just gave her a confused look before pulling herself out of bed. She dug through her clothes until she found the source of the sound.

Her heart sank as she recognized it.

It was a transmitter, only as large as her palm, blinking and beeping furiously at her. She clicked it off, but only the sound stopped.

“I think it’ll do to repeat- _what was that?_ ” Valkyrie asked again, and Carol slowly put on her uniform.

“That was a transmitter from Earth. I... I gave it to the director of this organization called SHIELD so he could call me. But only in emergency. As in, Earth’s imminent destruction emergency.” she said, and Valkyrie stared at her.

“Well fuck.” she said after a minute. “Sakaar’s a pretty long parsec from Terra. I guess you’d better help me. Get your stuff, Captain Marvel. We’re leaving.” Valkyrie directed, and Carol nodded, gathering her things.

Valkyrie slammed the door to the apartment and they left the building. The streets of the Sakaarian bazaar were even more frenzied and dirty than usual. Valkyrie frowned. There was nowhere near as many beings as usual, but those that were out seemed panicked and scared. Val tried to push it from her mind as Carol grabbed her hand through the crowd.

Thick dust covering the ground dirtied their leggings as they got to Valkyrie’s scrapper, the entryway sliding open as they climbed on. Valkyrie fired up the old thing with a sigh. Carol leaned against Valkyrie’s chair as she deftly piloted the ship up and flew them to the dump yards. Carol’s quinjet sat dormant on top a pile of building materials and she jumped out early before Valkyrie had time to shut the engine off.

“Where are you going?” Valkyrie yelled after her as she ran off.

“The trans-universal engine!” she yelled over her shoulder with a smile and Valkyrie sighed as she landed her plane and shut it off, hopping out and going immediately over to the quinjet.

Val did a cursory systems check while Carol was gathering the parts for the repair. About an hour later after she finished the check (and her bottle of fire whiskey) Carol walked on board with the transmission they needed, tossing it to Valkyrie.

“Can you fix it, space princess?” she said as she leaned against the wall, and Valkyrie caught it with a smirk. She smacked Carol’s ass as she walked off deck to add it to the drive systems, and the human scowled at her. It only took a few minutes before she practically skipped back onto the ship and they took off.

“How long do you think it’ll take?” Carol asked from the back of the ship as Valkyrie piloted it to the Devil’s Anus and she shrugged.

“Probably not more than a day or two.” she said, and Carol nodded as they flew over the Sakaarian trash fields and towards the wormhole.

 _Onwards and upwards_ , Carol thought to herself.

 


End file.
